• Home
  • About
  • Contact

Jazz With an Accent

~ Global music in the 21st century

Jazz With an Accent

Monthly Archives: September 2014

New Jazz Frontiers / Jazz @ Lincoln Center

12 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by Fernando González in Home, Jazz, On Music

≈ Leave a comment

programa_playbill

Jazz at Lincoln Center
The Appel Room
Frederick P. Rose Hall

New Jazz Frontiers

ORLANDO “MARACA” VALLE, Flute
EDMAR CASTANEDA, Harp
EDWARD SIMON, Piano
LUQUES CURTIS, Bass
DANIEL FREEDMAN, Drums, Percussion

Notes on the Program
Fernando González

“Jazz is dead” is one of the evergreens in jazz literature. Yet for all the challenges, real and perceived facing jazz in the cultural marketplace, the real story for the past few decades has been the triumph of jazz.

Once a novelty (and a U.S. diplomatic tool) around the globe, jazz has become a lingua franca. Ambassadors such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Dave Brubeck took jazz in seemingly every direction, defying language barriers and Cold War borders, fostering generations of fans and musicians.

This not only opened new markets for jazz (and fostered goodwill towards the United States), but also, in time, produced a few exceptional contributors. However, as with basketball (another U.S. cultural product that has gone global), foreigners are no longer a curiosity, but are becoming key players – and like in basketball, they are changing the game.
It might seem paradoxical, but there is no greater sign of the success of jazz than that while musicians around the world are still studying and celebrating the jazz canon and its creators, many are also already looking past them. For some, emulation and imitation have given way to a search for their own vocabulary, bringing the tools and spirit of jazz to their own musical traditions.

“Music is always a product of the times, and this is one positive aspect of globalization. Jazz is a sort of Esperanto for musicians around the world,’’ said once Cuban reedman Paquito D’Rivera, a champion of this process in both jazz and Latin jazz. “It has always been that and it’s become more so as time passes.”

This is at the essence of this evening’s Jazz at Lincoln Center program New Jazz Frontiers.
The concert features an exceptional group comprising harpist Edmar Castañeda (Colombia), flutist Orlando “Maraca” Valle (Cuba), pianist Edward Simon (Venezuela), bassist Luques Curtis, and drummer/percussionist Daniel Freedman (both from the United States), and the point is made not only by the different traditions – both received and learned– present on stage, but also the fact that these musicians have not played together as a group before tonight.

Jazz is their common language.
“A lot of the young cats playing jazz these days are coming from different countries. They are
not just from New York or Chicago,” says Curtis, who was born in Hartford, CT and came of age as a jazz musician playing both straightahead jazz and Latin music. “And I think they just naturally bring their own music and it all melts into jazz.”
Perhaps because, after all, jazz was born as a Made-in-America global blend, there is an openness, a generosity, and a plasticity in jazz that not only accepts the world but embraces it.
“I think what interests most musicians about jazz is the level of sophistication in the improvisation,” says Simon, who immersed himself in the U.S. jazz scene before developing his own, rich fusion of jazz and Venezuelan and European classical music.
“You have improvisation in Latin America and around the world—but jazz has developed [it] to a really high level. To discover that we can combine that very sophisticated way of improvising with the music of our native countries is exhilarating.
“Then, conceptually, there’s a certain attitude that you have to have to play jazz. Breaking the rules and stretching boundaries has allowed this music to thrive and evolve—and it’s what makes jazz so exciting for both the listener and the player. And finally, what really makes jazz unique and so beautiful is the interaction between the musicians playing it. It’s something that happens at such a high level—and there is nothing like it in any other music.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Search

Categories

  • Home
  • In Other Words
  • On Music
    • Jazz
    • Latin Jazz

Recent Posts

  • The Palladium Ballroom Alive Again in Miami Beach
  • Astor Piazzolla and a GRAMMY Nomination
  • Gustavo Matamoros and the mysteries (and possibilities) of sound
My Tweets

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2009
  • September 2009
  • December 2007
  • January 2001
  • September 1995
  • December 1994
  • November 1987

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2009
  • September 2009
  • December 2007
  • January 2001
  • September 1995
  • December 1994
  • November 1987
My Tweets

RECENT TWEETS

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Categories

  • Home
  • In Other Words
  • On Music
    • Jazz
    • Latin Jazz

Archives

CONTACT INFO

P.O. Box 402702 Miami Beach FL 33140 - 0702 USA fernando@fgonow.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Jazz With an Accent
    • Join 29 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Jazz With an Accent
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: